Archive | Reading recommendations

When I lived in Manhattan in my early twenties, I had a friend who was an extraordinary musician, funny, smart, and generous. She was also moody, quick to take offense, irrational, and self-destructive. In the five years I knew her, she spent at least a year of days not speaking to me. After I married […]

Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt My rating: 4 of 5 stars I wasn’t as torn-up over this book as some readers seem to have been, but I did enjoy it. For me, it was much less a story about AIDS and its aftermath than it was a story about how family […]

After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Laura Lippman is one of my “go-to” authors–someone I read when I’m not in the mood to take a risk, but just want to settle in with a good book that I know I’ll enjoy. Her standalone novels are always about how a […]

Writing murder mysteries has made it a lot harder for me to fully enjoy reading them. Like one magician watching the performance of another, I’m always looking for how the trick was pulled off, acutely aware of the sleight of hand and distractions that make a good mystery or thriller work. And when the machinery […]

> Have you ever been invited to an exotic party where you won’t know a soul? This will be exciting—an opportunity to meet new people, visit a glamorous location, eat fancy food. You accept the offer with enthusiasm. And then the doubts set in. What will you wear? What if you have nothing in common […]

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout My rating: 3 of 5 stars I didn’t enjoy reading this book, but I’m glad I read it. Huh? Yeah, it doesn’t make sense to me either. When my book club selected THE BURGESS BOYS for our April read, I was excited. After all, I loved OLIVE KITTERIDGE. Some […]

This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book started off really strong and ended sort of “meh.” The story is told from three alternating first-person points-of-view, which is very hard to pull off, and Cash does not fully succeed. The strongest of the three narrative voices belongs […]

Hey, how you doin’? Today, I’m here to tell you about some funny mysteries that have a special je ne sais quoi. Je ne sais what? Hey, this is Jersey—we’re talkin’ Jersey Edge. New Jersey—where the surf is high and the politics is low-down. We’re impatient, brutally honest, and, as Jon Stewart points out, we […]

In honor of Valentine’s Day I’m creating this list of my favorite mystery heroes to take to bed–quirky, tough, funny, smart, profane, and all sexy each in his own way. Of course, the stereotypical mystery hero is an alcoholic loner incapable of sustaining a relationship, but most of my favorites actually have a track record […]

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow, wow, WOW! It’s been a long time since I read a book that I couldn’t wait to get back to every day. When I finished on a weekday morning, I stumbled around the house for a while, unable to resume the activities of […]